NATO planners angle for wider peace-keeping role

April 12 2002

A British peacekeeper, of the 3rd Commando Brigade, Royal Marines, mans a machine gun at Bagram airbase. Photo: AFP

Washington: NATO, in a move that would broaden its traditional role, has offered to carry out the planning for a Turkish-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, the Secretary-General, George Robertson, says.

The NATO offer is aimed at encouraging Turkey to take over command of the international peacekeeping force in Kabul from the British in June.

The offer also marks a departure for the Western alliance. It would enlist planners at NATO's military headquarters to help with an operation that would take place far from the alliance's traditional zone of responsibility and that would not be under the alliance's command.

The reason for the offer is clear: assembling and managing an international force is a complex task, one that only Britain and a handful of other European countries can manage. It involves identifying the precise forces needed from an array of countries and determining when and where they should be deployed.

Turkey, a NATO member, is considering the offer but has not yet formally requested help with the planning. ");document.write("

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The offer is part of a broader effort by NATO to make itself more relevant in the campaign against terrorism. Lord Robertson on Wednesday stressed the importance of NATO's role in fighting terrorism.

He said the alliance had been making a direct contribution by breaking up al-Qaeda terrorist cells in the Balkans and had dispatched its early-warning AWACS aircraft to patrol United States skies.

NATO also made it easier for European countries and the US to work together in Afghanistan, he said.

International peacekeepers in Kabul said yesterday that they had found 151 Chinese-made rockets, and a top Afghan official said suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda rebels involved in rocket attacks on the capital had been arrested.